The ring
by vodooman
Summary: Never heard of a ring before that had a lot of power and changed people... seriously?


**The ring **

Fandom: Smallville, Fantastic Four  
Rating: G  
Genre: romance, humour, AU, crossover  
Characters/Pairings: Susan/Reed, Johnny, Ben, Chloe, Oliver  
Any warnings: None.  
Disclaimer: Smallville and Fantastic Four and its characters are not mine. I only write fan fiction for the fun of it.  
A/N: Made for the 'Goody e-bag week 05'.

A/N2: Please note that in this fic I was picturing both Chloe and Oliver a little older than the Fantastic Four. The F4 just joined the Justice League... explaining their connection. And here the red!k has effects on them.

**::**

She looked into his eyes and expected to see something. Anything that would remind her of the man she had fallen in love with, the man she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with. But she saw nothing of the sort. The only thing she did see was resentment. Resentment and Hate.

"Don't forget, he is only acting this way because of the red-k ring!" said the blond woman standing with them. Ben inevitably stared at Johnny at the mention of the ring.

"What?" asked Johnny defensively. "How should I have known that such a small ring would make such big troubles?"

The blond woman next to Susan snorted at that and replied sarcastically, "Never read or watched Lord of the Rings?"

Johnny had the decency to blush at that. "Right..."

To think it had all started out harmless.

Just yesterday they had been planning a surprise party for Reed's birthday. She had been busy with writing a last minute guest list, and inviting those guests on the list; Johnny had been busy with finding a present; and Ben had grumbled around that it was never a good idea to celebrate a birthday of Reeds.

How ironic it seemed that Ben had been right about that. But who could have known that Johnny would on the last minute buy a ring at a pawn shop that used to belong to a Smallville-High Quarterback.

Kryptonite, at least the red kind, seemed to have an aggressive effect on them when worn. Susan guessed it was sheer luck that she had decided to invite their new friends from the Justice League; and that Chloe Sullivan – Watchtower – knew so much about Kryptonite.

"What can we do, to get Reed back?" asked Susan, looking back at the man she had loved. She still loved.

Reed stared at them with hate, his fist had transformed into a large hammer. He was swinging it around every time one of the remaining fantastic four came even as close as ten meters.

Chloe was looking to the side, watching as Johnny yet again tried to get closer to his brother-in-law. The swinging hammer knocked him back into the wall of a tall building.

She turned and focused on Susan. "We need to get Reed to take off the ring... but he isn't going to do this out of his own accord. Believe me... I have been through this already once. As soon as the ring is off, he'll be your Mr. Fantastic again."

"But how do we get this off?" asked Susan as she saw that one of her new friends, Oliver Queen was getting his shooting gear out of a sports bag.

"You need to create a force field that will hold him in place. It needs to be tight enough to hold him, and just before I fire a shot, you'll need to release it again."

Oliver took out an arrow and made a move to aim for Reed, when Susan asked in a panic, "You're going to shoot him? How is killing my husband going to solve this problem?"

Johnny, having collected himself again, shot Oliver a curious look. "Yeah, so shooting Reed would solve the problem... but we actually want the elastic dude back... to normal. Not dead!"

Oliver answered with a grin. Chloe, now standing next to him rolled her eyes and turned to Susan for reassurance. "It's not going to kill him. There is a mild sedative in the tip of the arrow... he'll be knocked out enough for you to remove the ring..."

"Or better to say, I am going to remove the ring... We don't want anything similar happening to anyone else." Said Oliver with a cocky smile. Chloe rolled her eyes again, but couldn't hide the smile that had already formed on her lips. She actually liked his cocky grin.

Susan nodded and concentrated. They all watched as a force field materialised around the now angered Mr. Fantastic. He tried to move and stretch, but couldn't.

"Alright then," said Oliver as he took aim at Reed. Just before he released the arrow, he screamed, "Now!"

It signalled for Susan that it was her time to move, and she did. The force field disappeared, and just before Reed could make a move, the arrow had already embedded itself in his shoulder.

All but Oliver watched their friend fall to the ground. He had already moved, making his way to the fallen hero. He took the ring off of the unconscious man's hand and then extracted the arrow. He pocketed the ring and looked at the arrow for damage.

Before he could do anything else, Susan had already slid down to sit with the unconscious Reed. She held his hand and stroked his hair.

Johnny came slowly to stand next to her. He lifted his hands over his head and asked rather slyly. "This still counts as a birthday present, right? I mean, I don't really need to buy him another gift?"

Ben, having now too moved to his fallen friend, stared at Johnny with a blank face. "I think it is safest for all of us if you never give anyone a present again...! Ever again!"

Susan didn't verbalise her opinion, just nodded slightly. Enough for Johnny to see. He smirked and then turned to Chloe. "So, Watchtower. Want to leave the party and go somewhere else?"

Chloe, now standing next to Oliver, only raised an eyebrow unimpressed and lifted one corner of her mouth. "Kid, I dated heroes long before you even practiced those lines on your first girlfriend!" She then turned to Oliver, "Let's get back to headquarters and put the ring away."

"Sure thing, Tower."

Johnny watched as both Chloe and Oliver walked away. He then turned back to see Reed slowly waking up, while shaking his head.

Well, thought Johnny, he could always have some fun messing with Reed's mind. Especially now that he 'misbehaved'.

"So Elastic-man. How do you feel?"


End file.
